Source: BBC Radio 4: Today Programme
URL: N/A
Date: 07/12/2012
Event: Doha climate talks in trouble: "you can't invent a world government tomorrow"
Attribution: BBC Radio 4
People:
James Naughtie: Well, UN talks, which are aimed at finding ways of tackling climate change, are coming into their final day in Doha in the Gulf. But they're in trouble, it seems. Our correspondent Roger Harrabin is there. What's up, Roger?
Roger Harrabin: Well, where can I start, Jim? There are too many things... I mean, firstly there's a lot of blame being cast around at the chairmanship of the talks, from Qatar. One other diplomat, a minister, told me he felt that when Qatar volunteered to host these talks, they thought it'd be like hosting the World Cup. You know, build some good venues, put in some hotel beds and Bob's your uncle. Another minister told me he'd come to see the chair of the talks - who, incidentally and rather ironically, was the former head of OPEC, the oil-producing cartel - he'd come to see the chair of the talks, a few weeks ago, to discuss how things would go. And the chair didn't talk about climate change at all - he'd talk about anything else, the weather and, you know - not the long-term weather, of course - but everything else, the football... But wasn't interested, and the chair from Qatar and also the co-chair from Saudi have been accused of letting talks drift -
James Naughtie: So what's happened?
Roger Harrabin: - despite the urgency of the problem. Well, what's happened basically, Jim, is not enough. We're in the middle of this massive transition from the old system - the Kyoto Protocol system where rich nations had to bear the burden - to the new system, by 2015, the Americans have insisted on, saying "We're not going to act until China acts, and India acts." A new system to come into place by 2015. They have a mass of business to do, to wind up the old system. They have a mass of business to do, to get the framework set for the new system. And I can't tell you, Jim, how diplomatically complex these negotiations are, with all the world's nations negotiating face to face with each other, based on individual self-interest, to protect the general climate. And by tonight they're supposed to have the old system wound up and the beginnings of a basis for the new system - and they are nowhere near. There's not even a final negotiating text, as we speak.
James Naughtie: So does that mean going back to square one? These talks have failed - it'll all need to be reconvened.
Roger Harrabin: Well, we don't know what it'll mean, Jim. And there are some people who say this UN process is hopeless, and that you cannot solve a global problem like climate change with the current global political system. But then, when you ask what you want to put in its place, then really people don't have a very good answer. So, in other words, these talks are awful but there's no other option.
James Naughtie: Yes, I mean, you can't invent a world government tomorrow.
Roger Harrabin: Well no, you can't invent a world government at all, probably. And so we're left with the talks supposed to be ending by midnight tonight. Traditionally, they'll go on to the next morning. There is talk now about, perhaps, the talks will be suspended altogether, because there's so much more still to do. Perhaps the talks will run on to Monday - god forbid. So we really don't know where we're going, Jim, and there's a real failure of leadership, here. The United States being blamed very heavily, people quite bitterly disappointed that President Obama, having shelved climate change from his political agenda and then apparently reinstated it on his political agenda recently, that America's not been more positive in these talks, they're very heavily criticised, particularly for their refusal to help with money for poor nations affected by climate change.
James Naughtie: Roger Harrabin, in Doha in Qatar, thank you very much.